Commitee: Commission on Human Rights

Topic: Minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12

Country: The Republic of the Philippines
Delegate: Francine Marie B. Imperial, Science and Technology Education Center

The United Nations Children’s Fund believes that all children have a right to survive,
thrive and fulfill their potential – to the benefit of a better world. There have been many
instances of effort directed towards the betterment of the lives of the children, may it be through
the protection and promotion of human rights. But despite the evident effort the world exerts, the
children have not been excused from violance and injustice, thus resulted to acts of juvenile
deliquency.

The Philippines is one of the high – ranking countries in Southeast Asia that contributes
to presense of criminality, from which the children are debated if to be held liable at a young age
for acts of conflict with the criminal law. The House of Representatives approved House Bill
8858 on 3rd and final reading with a vote of 146 – 34 – 0, the bill demands to lower the
minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12. Under the bill, a child who commits a serious
crime such that involve parricide, murder, infanticide, kidnapping, serious illegal detention
where the victim is killed, would be detained to the Intensice Juvenile Intervention and Support
Center or also called a s Bahay Pag- asa. The lowering of minimum of criminal respoonsibility is
said to be a legislative priority of the present president, Rodrigo Duterte.

The risk of the proposed bill outweighs its purpose to preserve peace.Children are not to
be further punished nor penalized when commiting deliquency against the law, but rather they
should be given the chance to rehabilitate. Vulnerability goes with any child that have embarked
in this world, one of the main reason why efforts to preserve their protection are exemplified in
many ways. Children are still developing their decision – making in between given instances.
They are still in the process towards full discernment. Children, are not to be scrutinized but
rather guided. They are not to be detained but rather rehabilitated. Casting a child with a criminal
record is just like breaking a nut with a sledgehammer, it is inappropriate and at the same time,
erroneous. One does not pluck a plant from the soil and blame the seed for not being a full grown
tree. The proposed bill is not something that people engage in their day to day lives, and this
matters in ways that ripple to the great ends of this unimaginable world.

Sources: http//:esquiremag.ph
http//:www.rapler.com
http//: www.unicef.org